Advice on the Opener

[swa]

I will be fishing with a friend on the opener who insists on achoring and slip bobber fishing. It's his boat, so he kind of determines the method of fishing. I can't complain too much, I caught a 27" walleye last year. But that was our only fish in 6 hours of fishing.

What I am looking for are some ideas on other methods to try while we are anchored. I am thinking about some vertical jigging options, maybe tossing some crank baits?

Thanks for any ideas.

[Jim Almquist]

I know the feeling when you are sitting in someone's boat and catching nothing when there are plenty of other ways to fish that are more productive then beating one spot to death.

Is the guy to lazy to troll or drift ?

A few other things that you might want to try is casting jigs out and hopping them back to the boat and if the fish are a little negative a slow retrieve just dragging them on the bottom can work. Another thing you can try is to hook a minnow by the tail and have it on a short Lindy rig and cast it out and slowly bring it back to the boat or you could tie on a floating jig and do the same with leeches or crawlers with a shot of air.

[JohnMickish]

What kind of structure and depth are you anchored over? Do you see fish on the sonar? If there are fish there you can verticle jig under a sonar like you would ice fishing. Casting cranks would work too depending on the depth and structure there.

[james_walleye]

Hey swa i noticed in another forum you said you were going to be on Mille Lacs. Slip bobbers do work wonders on Mille Lacs. I'm guessing you were on rock? If thats the case a slip would be your best option. You could go vertical but your not covering ground and to cast and retrieve a jig could be risky business. I would suggest keeping aggressive and changing things up with your slip bobber rig. Keep casting it upwind and let the wind "cover ground" for you and maybe just change up your business end of the float. I've seen days out there where switching from a red hook to a chartruese hook with a chatruese bead has worked wonders.

[swa]

Yeah, I will be on Mille Lacs. Last year, we set up just outside of Garrison in 20-25 feet of water. I think we were on rocks there.

There are fish on the radar and I am seriously thinking about some trying some jigging.

I've been watching / reading some techiniques using agressive presentations. Just not sure if it would work this early in the season.

[mr_jman]

It never hurts to try something you've read about, especially if your not getting bites anyways. Even if you are catching fish its not a bad idea to see what else works. I have found several productive lures by changing out even on a good bite. These become good options for another time when the bite is slower, because you know these lures work too!

[BFJ]

Don't be afraid to change up that bobber presentation! Different sizes and types of bobbers will drift and travel differently. Colors, jigs vs hooks, bead colors, even bait types. Get creative! It can be a great learning experience!

[PerchJerker]

Lots of good advice given already.

If you're in 20-25 fow then I don't think casting cranks is likely to be very productive for you.

The first thing I'd try is mixing up your slip bobber presentation, different colors / jigs / beads etc. to see if you can trigger any fish. I assume you're fishing leeches but you can try crawlers and minnow under a bobber too. And just because you're bobber fishing doesn't mean you need to let your bobber sit there and just hope it goes down - fan-cast the area with your bobber, and twitch and retrieve it to try to cover some ground. If your buddy will let you do this, you can also change your boat position by tying off the anchor on different sides of the boat, and letting out more or less anchor line --- as well as picking up and re-anchoring.

If that's not working, I'd try pitching jigs. You may get snagged but I'd just deal with it.

If it's not too rocky then a slip sinker rig that you can gently cast out and let a minnow swim on is a good idea to try too.

Good luck out there.

[Acemac]

swim baits and big twistertail jig rigs.

[BobT]

Quote:

If that's not working, I'd try pitching jigs. You may get snagged but I'd just deal with it.

That's what I'd try. One thing. If you're fishing jigs and not snagging and losing a few, you're not fishing them right.

[MuskieJunkie]

In 20 to 25 FOW you're probably not going to be able to get crank baits deep enough. I'd throw swim baits, 3/4 oz bullet jig head with a 5" berkly boot tail swim bait (swimin' shad I think they're called).

As far as it being your friends boat, you definetly don't want to put yourself in a spot where you frusterated and barking orders at him, there's a difference between suggesting other spots/presentations and telling him what to do. Just think of Deadliest Catch, he's the captain of the ship, it's his way or the highway (not really but you get my point). You could pick out spots ahead of time on a map and suggest anchoring on them for 30 minutes at a time.

[swa]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

The use of the 3/4 oz bullet head with the 5" swim shad was actually what got me started on this whole thread. I saw it on an In Fisherman program. However, they never really mentioned if it would work this time of year.

I found some 3" shads at Fleet Farm, but haven't found the 5" ones yet.

[PerchJerker]

The use of the 3/4 oz bullet head with the 5" swim shad was actually what got me started on this whole thread. I saw it on an In Fisherman program. However, they never really mentioned if it would work this time of year.

I have caught walleyes on swim baits on the opener but you need aggressive fish. If you have swimbaits with you I'd give them a try, make a few casts here and there to see if you can get it to work, but if it's not working I'd go back to higher-percentage techniques. And again, in 20-25 fow you're really not in an ideal location for casting cranks or swimbaits.

[muddpuppy]

I wouuld toss a Rap original floater #9 or #11 on a 3-4' leader attached to a lindy no-snag. Cast it out and bring it back slowwww but constant movement to give it a wiggle